Our journey was a pleasant one thanks to the moving fortress known as Ardaanin, as I claimed the master bedroom, while Darius took the first of the guest rooms and my brothers shared the second.

Everyday was peaceful, with little to do, so I occupied said time by training my divine power in the mornings and late into the afternoon, while practicing my martial arts in evenings, when our host paused to rest and feed the horses and Chimeras who'd been toiling under the scorching, infernal sun of the torturous Blistering Desert all day.

'It's going to take me half a decade to unlock the fourth gate at this pace.' I estimated, as I carefully circulated the ever increasing degree of hellfire within me, continuing to temper and infuse my body with the essence of wretched perdition.

Though I was slightly miffed by the sheer length of time I would need to wait, to regain a portion of my past power, that continuously taunted me in my dreams and memories every time I laid my head upon my pillow, it was still batter than any of my future enemies, especially Aurelius and Nicholas, who I learned were still at the second gate, and would still need years before they are even worthy challenge their third gate.

'But I'm not the only one. They are growing stronger and faster in this life time as well... Seems like my actions have placed them under a great deal of pressure, spurring them on to work harder.' I silently concluded, but I was not overly concerned, as I held a tremendous lead on them; one I was going to make sure I do not lose, or allow them to bridge.

But then I was yanked away from thoughts, as my concentration was suddenly broken, by Abraham's voice saying "Pardon the interruption sire, but lunch has been served and everyone's waiting for you.

Calming the rambunctious hellfire still refining my body from within, I open my eyes, who slowly returned to their usual obsidian colour, from haunting silverish white and burned black sclera, and resignedly reply "I'm on my way."

I swiftly untangle myself from the lotus position I was sitting in, and made my way to the large dinning hall within the massive carriage, where I sat down at the head of the long, central table, with Darius sitting opposite me, while brothers occupied the seats to my right and Leonid sat alone on the left.

"Seriously brother. How can you be late every single day? Lunch is always on the same time you know?!" Cyrus annoyedly said, his face a mask of frustration and hunger, clearly displeased at having to delay the appeasement of his growling stomach.

"My apologies." I simply said with an amused smile, as I took my seat upon the fairly luxurious feast before us, considering the circumstances.

We all quickly filled up our plates with tender steaks, boiled vegetables, a few slices of freshly baked bread and a variety of vegetable salads, but half way through our meal, Darius suddenly said, catching everyone by surprise "My emperor, at the risk of defying your previous orders, but if I could, may I give a piece of counsel."

"Of course." I confidently replied with a cocked eyebrow, confused by his words and the overly humble state of his tone.

"My liege, though you have made your stance on the issue crystal clear time and again, but I must implore you to consider the words of her majesty the empress, even if she said them half in jest." His eyes were deathly serious, as he proclaimed his final words "If for nothing else, then for the good of the empire and to ease the worries of both your mother, your ministers and every loyal citizen in the nation, please sire, will not again consider the possibility of marriage?"

A stillness like a sudden visit from the God of Death himself descended upon us, as everyone awaited my coming words, but contrary to their belief of me repeating what I had always said when this matter was brought up, such as 'I have no interest in the matter for now.' Or 'We will speak of this on a later date.'

Instead a short lived laugh escaped my lips, as I calmly said "You need not worry anymore Grand Vizier, for I was planning to meet my chosen empress on this very journey."

I silence more ladened than the one Darius conjured before, then appeared after my words, as stared at me gawk eyed, with even the maids who stood to the side forgetting all their training at this moment, and were now looking at me in utter disbelief.

"Wait brother, truly?!" Cyrus the loudly exclaimed, as he jumped from his seat, catapulting the muzzled quiet far away, as the avalanche of cries erupted.

"Who is she?" Nizam instantly asked, his emerald eyes almost sparkling in sheer curiosity.

"She's a princess isn't she?" Cyrus asked with a sly grin.

"Of course she's a princess, you idiot! Do you think our brother would marry just anyone!" Nizam slapped our younger brother on the head, making the latter grown in pain, even though as a newly christened second rank martial artist, he felt nothing from his blow.

"From which nation does her imperial majesty hail from?" Horus then asked, already calling her as if she were my wife, all the while trying to mask his own burning curiosity and excitement.

"Yes, sire. Please do tell who our future empress is?" Darius then echoed, his eyes already ripe with the devious light of Machivellian machinations, as a dozen different ploys to gain more benefits for our empire, instantly began circulating in his cunning old head.

"Wait... Could she be the one you asked me to search for a couple of months ago?" Isaac unintentionally muttered, his voice awash with confusion.

"Who?" Abraham, who stood right next to him, asked.

Finally noticing his blunder when he heard Abraham's voice, Isaac instinctually glanced around him for a moment and realized that all eyes were trained solely on him, making the old Grand Chamberlin feel very much stuck between a rock and a hard place.

But then he turned his gaze to me for a moment, before he then relaxed and began explaining, as soon as he saw me nodding in approval "His imperial majesty has ordered me to deploy nearly a hundred Shade Corps members in the Astrapi Kingdom months ago, so that we may locate a young woman the same age as his majesty, with long pale blonde hair and... amethyst eyes." Isaac hesitated for a moment on the last descriptor he uttered, deciding not to spill all I had said to him about Eve, since her eye colour alone was unique enough as it is.

Meanwhile, everyone else was racking their brains in search for this fabled lady who'd managed to ensnare the interest of the fearsome Ruinous Dragon; the same man who's denied hundreds if not thousands of marriage offers, from both foreign and domestic powers.

But it was painfully clear to me that they couldn't remember or identify a single woman with these characteristics.

Pale blonde was not a particularly rare hair colour among the royal families of the world, and that presented them with nearly a hundred different names to guess from, which was a headache. But that was not the issue at hand for them at the moment, since the second descriptor, amethyst eyes, tossed out all they thought off.

And for a moment they considered that this woman was not a member of a royal family after all, but they almost immediately squashed that thought the moment it sprouted in their thoughts, since the aforementioned colour, amethyst, was not a normally occurring hue among humans, so that must mean that divine blood was at hand here, but which family possessed such an odd characteristic.

That is where they were stumped.

Every God blooded family in Meathria has a unique characteristic they inherit, almost as if their divine ancestry has marked them in some way. That doesn't mean that every member of the family must possess said characteristic, but it does mean that only members of this specific family can have it. And the one who inherits the divine blood of their family's progenitor will always possess it.

Take for example my own family and our identifying trait, our pitch black eyes, which are so devoid of light that even if we were to look directly into the sun, our pupils would still remain two lifeless, abyssal black gems. And yet, before the birth of Dido and Azrael, only I and Alisar had inherited them, with Cyrus and Nizam taking our mother's eyes.

And most of these traits were fairly well known to the public, let alone to men such as those who surrounded me today, and yet even they couldn't think of a single divine lineage with amethyst eyes.

"Sire, are you certain the future empress possess 'amethyst' eyes?" Leonid hesitantly asked, stressing the word amethyst; thinking a mistake or a misunderstanding must have been made at some point, since no held such a thing in this world.

'Either Isaac said the wrong words, I'd been miss informed, or maybe his own ears were playing a trick on him and he'd been wrong.' That was what they'd all thought, since each and everyone of them prided themselves on their extensive knowledge of the world.

But unfortunately for them and their pride, no error was made.

"Yes." I confidently answered, but before they could ask another question, I said the words that Isaac hadn't said earlier and that froze everyone to their core "And let me be clear as well; she's not just a member of her family, but the heir to it."